A coupling of the Elgar Violin Concerto and Violin Sonata today; plus, a truncated performance of the concerto, all led by Albert Sammons.
Born in 1886 in West London, Sammons’ remarkable life includes leaving school a 12 and becoming leader of the Earl’s Court Exhibition Orchestra the very next year!
He was spotted by Thomas Beecham in 1908 (at which point Sammons led the orchestra at Waldorf Hotel); he became Beecham’s sub-leader; Sammons later founded the New String Quartet (later the London String Quartet).The excellent writer Jonathan Woolf’s booklet notes call Sammons “Britain’s leading violinist” from 1914 to 1948 (at which point Sammons sadly contracted Parkinson’s disease).
It was the Elgar Violin Concerto that enabled him to his to a place of prominenc. He first performed in 1914; Elgar was to be a frequent collaborator, as conductor.
The first movement of the full Elgar Concerto recording on this disc (New Queen’s Hall Orchestra under Sir Henry Wood, March 1929, first release Columbia L 2345/50) is swift, but the speed carries impetuosity and passion rather than a feeling of rushing. Wood finds something of the spirit of Elgar’s Cockaigne in this account. The velocity also brings passages of the first movement into true virtuoso territory, especially as the music hurtles towards its conclusion:
I love this 2024 remastering: we do hear so much orchestra detail, as we do in the lovely Andante (no indulgent Adagio here!) with finely judged portamento from Sammons:
“Elgar does Mendelssohn” sums up the remarkable opening of the finale: this is Elgar in scampering mood. The is the most remarkable solo violin – orchestra handover here, too: fast this might be, but rushed it’s not. This is really quite a magical take on the finale. And there is no lack of atmosphere to the accompanied cadenza (string tremolos absolutely perfectly audible in this transfer! – a true widow into another world):
When Heifetz came to London in 1949 (to record this very piece), it was Sammons he consulted. Woolf’s notes tell of only one performance with Sammons and a non-UK orchestra – the Venna Symphony Orchestra under one Felix Weingartner (in Nottingham). Oh, to hear that performance – Weingartner was a great conductor, beyond doubt and is due a post here on Classical Explorer. But Wood was a great conductor, too,, and what we hear here is musical gold.
The alternative Elgar is a truncated performance; Sammons with unnamed orchestra, again with Wood, recorded March 14, 1916 and released also on Columbia (1071/2). We get 3″48 of he first movement: the whole thing came out on four sides (with the cadenza taking up a whole side); it appeared prior to the composer’s own adjudged recording. Again, this is a powered performance: the 3″15 of the slow movement feels a little hurried perhaps, but what an orchestral climax! Unexpectedly powerful, for sure:
The cadenza and Allegro molto are on two sides and therefore two tracks (4″08 and 3″41). The cadenza launches like it’s Elgar’s Lark Ascending!
The finale fragment is a kind of fractured Mendelssohn here; ambitious but perhaps not as quite on-point as its later incarnation.
This is not our first Elgar Violin Sonata on Classical Explorer, but it is the first major historical one. Sammons is joined by William Murdoch on piano in another Columbia recording, now February 1935, so six years after the full Concerto here. Both Sammons and Murdoch were conscripted unto the Grenadier Guards, incidentally: this became an enduring partnership (although Sammons was also sometimes partnered by Ethel Hobday, his moher-in-law!). Among other pienists he worked with was the great Lissz pianist Mark Hambourg, and also with Dame Myra Hess.
This is the other side to Elgar, the chamber musician. His chamber music remains under-performed to this day, so it is doubly good to have this. The sense of give and take, or equals, is palpable in the wonderfully inventive first movement:
After this muscular first movement, the tender song of the Andante, with Sammons’ low register beautifully sonorous at the opening. Elgar’s writing seems almost modern thereafter; a real acknowledgement that he’s not just about nobilmente! What a revelation this performance is:
Twilit Elgar surfaces later in the movement; the sun comes out for the final movement, a stunning performance of great light and shade. Murdoch’s fine legato shines through the years, while Sammons’ ever-tasteful portamento gives a proper sense of place and time:
A gem: transfer engineer Raymond Glaspole has worked absolute wonders on all three recordings, whether for violin and piano or violin and orchestra.
The disc is available at Amazon here.
